Well it was time to take the Kona Smoke out on her first run. I decided that a quick 20km or so ride up the Bike Track just down the road was the order of the day. Dressed in just a pair of shorts and tshirt I decided that proper bike gear was not going to be necessary for some reason. I was right the bike is so comfy and nice to ride, I didn’t even notice that I was hardly dressed for the occasion, even the things on my feet were great on those big chunky platform pedals that came with the bike…. Awesome.

The ride was pretty uneventful but also very enjoyable, we took our time lapped up the sights and sounds it was great.

After lunch then I had a few jobs to do such as popping to do the laundry and take some DVD’s back to Blockbuster. I loaded up the rear pannier with the clothes and off i went, its around 3k to the DVD store and then around another 6 or so to the laundry so again another very enjoyable ride with some magazine reading whilst waiting for the laundry.

I have to say riding this big tank around you get a feeling of never being in a rush, just enjoying ambling around the city with no cares in the world… I love it…

I’m beginning to also think that with a few upgrades this bike would make a fine tourer, the frame itself is solid enough for sure and if the components over time were upgraded I would have no hesitation in taking this little puppy on a multiday tour for sure. If the tour was close to civilisation I would probably be happy to do it straight off.

Ok I have for some reason decided to get another bike, can you have to many….. I dont think so.

This is a weird one as I have a road bike and a commuter/touring bike already. I couldn’t really leave it there for the a$300 asking price. It is a Kona Smoke 06 model hence the price. Its built like a tank and thus weighs about the same as one as well but I love it. It’s amazingly relaxed to ride very upright position and asorbs the bumps like there not even there.

I am going to be using this for commuting in the winter and also for the great bike paths and rail trails that Victoria and Australia in general have to offer.

I am also going away this week on a weeks camping trips, taking the bikes of course so this will be a good first outing for it. Of course I’ll post a review when I have done some riding on it.

There has been an update to the original outburst from this blogger, clearing a few things up, good on her I say. Her comments were completely out of order and to say I took them to seriously, well I did take them very seriously as I have almost daily incidents where I nearly get knocked off by motorists trying to make it to their destination a few seconds quicker.

Anyway all done and dusted now, and hopefully we have a motorist with a new found love of bicycle safety

Victorian Transport Minister Lynne Kosky will review her decision to ban bikes from peak hour trains after claiming her department misinformed her on the issue.

Ms Kosky said her department had told her it had undertaken a full consultation and review which found strong support for banning bikes at peak hours.

“I was misinformed by the department that they had done a full consultation on this and that is what I am incredibly disappointed about,” she told ABC Radio.

“That’s why I have ordered a review of the full implementation.”

She said there needed to be an agreement between bike groups and commuters about sharing space on trains during peak hours.

“We do have quite a lot of complaints from people who are concerned about bikes, but there is a way of managing this where we can have cyclists and other commuters on the trains,” Ms Kosky said.

She said solutions could involve reserving the last carriage on trains for bike riders or improving storage at stations.

“I would have preferred not to look at a review (but the department) had informed me they had undertaken full consultation and had very strong support for this policy but that was not the case,” she said.

Police officer Peter Hilbricht supports the project even though he thinks it’s a big challenge to Germans. “In Germany, everything is regulated,” he says, “and suddenly we have a little town that takes all of its traffic signs down.”